Giuliani's remarks come despite the fact that MKO, along with 49 other groups including al-Qaeda, is on the US State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations which considers providing "material support or resources" for such groups or accepting donations from them as illegal.

Despite that law, three top-ranking former US officials are currently being investigated by the Treasury Department for accepting speaking fees from the MKO.

Former Pennsylvania Gov., Philadelphia mayor, and Democratic National Chairman Ed Rendell was the first to face federal scrutiny for accepting speaking fees from the MKO.

Earlier this month ex-FBI Director Louis Freeh and a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, retired Gen. Hugh Shelton, were also subpoenaed.

In the past few years, dozens of other US politicians have been paid by the MKO, including former Vermont Gov. and Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean, retired Gen. Wesley Clark, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Bushs White House Chief of Staff Andy Card and even former Rep. Lee Hamilton, who was also co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission.

Giuliani, who charges as much as $100,000 per speaking engagement, was asked to appear at the Paris conference by the so-called French Committee for a Democratic Iran.

The US Treasury Department charges that these types of Iranian organizations are clandestinely funneling money from the MKO into speakers' pockets.

The MKO members fled to Iraq in 1986, where it enjoyed the support of Iraq's executed dictator Saddam Hussein, and set up camp in Diyala Province, near the Iranian border.

MKO is also known to have cooperated with Saddam in suppressing the 1991 uprisings in southern Iraq and the massacre of Iraqi Kurds. The group has carried out numerous acts of violence against Iranian civilians and government officials.